Rubbish, Litter & Street Maintenance

We litter pick our town centres and areas where there are local shops daily. General neighbourhood areas are visited once every two weeks and the major trunk roads are cleaned once every five weeks between March and October.

If any vegetation, trees or shrubs from a private property restricts pedestrians or is dangerous to traffic, action can be taken under the Highways Act 1980. 

Things you can do to help

We can all help keep our local area clean and tidy by doing things slightly differently.

• Taking litter home and recycling it properly rather than putting it in the street bin. It all goes to the same place eventually but stops bins from overflowing and litter blowing in the street on a windy day.
• Don’t try and put litter in a full or overflowing bin. This includes dog waste. Please take it home and recycle. Dog waste can also be placed in your black bin.
• When doing any gardening and weeding take five minutes to remove weeds from the front of the wall or fence around your property. This will also save on chemicals and help the environment.
• Recycle wherever possible any leaves that fall from any trees in your garden and don’t brush or blow them into the road. They can block gullies and drains causing flooding in the road when it next rains.
• Take litter home after an event or after a day out in the park and recycle.
• If you are a dog owner, please consider other residents and make sure you pick up any dog waste and dispose of it responsibly.
• ​We all have a role to play in keeping our streets clean and we want people to take pride in the area where they live or work. The Council is appreciative of the efforts of volunteer litter pickers and we recognise the real difference that these people can make to local neighbourhoods and public open spaces by complementing the cleaning activities of the Council and other service providers. Litter picking in a public place will always involve a level of risk to the individuals involved and the Council will always support volunteer litter pickers by providing health and safety advice and guidance. We can also provide bags and lend litter picking equipment and co-ordinate the collection of any bags of litter accumulated by volunteers. If you would further information on equipment that we have available for loan please email fpn@halton.gov.uk​

Litter bins

The Council provides litter bins on its streets, in its parks and open spaces and within its shopping centres. Litter bins are for the disposal of small items of rubbish such as paper, cans, bottles, packaging and dog waste. They are not for the disposal of domestic refuse. The placing of domestic refuse in a litter bin is a fly tipping offence for which there are heavy penalties. The Council will take all steps necessary to help ensure that litter bins remain fit for their intended purpose and are available for people to deposit items of litter. This includes taking enforcement action.  All incidents where domestic refuse has been placed in or alongside litter bins will be investigated by Enforcement Officers and those found to be responsible will face being issued with a fixed penalty notice or prosecution.

There are over a 1,000 litter bins in Halton and the council does not have unlimited resources. Therefore it has different schedules for emptying the bins. Litter bins in town centres, local shopping centres and busier public parks are emptied more frequently than all other litter bins which are emptied regularly.

Grass cutting

Halton Council is having to cut the grass in the borough less often than before due to the continuing effect of budget cuts. Principle grass areas will continue to be cut three-weekly, on eleven occasions per season.

The grass now has to be cut to a longer length because of the reduced frequency between cuts. If we cut it shorter the performance of the machines is compromised and they would struggle to cut the quantity of grass required. There would also be very large amounts of grass cuttings generated.

Some areas of grass have been designated as meadows which will be cut twice a year. Other items such as floral bedding on roundabouts were also removed.

The standard of maintenance within the borough's public parks has remained the same as it previously was.

Fly tipping

When reporting fly tipping it will help if you can give the following details:

• the date, time and place where the tipping took place.
• a description of the waste - type, quantity.
• details of any vehicles involved - type of vehicle, registration number, make, model, colour.

Abandoned Shopping Trolleys

Residents can report abandoned trolleys.  On receipt of a report the store will be advised. They will be requested to take ownership of the trolley and collect within 24 hours of notification. If the store is unable to provide a collection service, Environment Officers will arrange collection and store the trolley for six weeks in accordance with the guidance.  Within 14 days from the collection of the trolley the local authority shall serve on the owner a Notice stating that the trolley has not been collected, failed to be removed and advise them on the place where it is being kept, associated costs involved and if it is not claimed then the authority may dispose of it.

Councils have a legal duty to remove fly-posting from public buildings. For private buildings it is the property owner that has a responsibility to remove any fly-posting. Fly-posting is illegal and anyone caught fly-posting can be fined or prosecuted.  The maximum fines for fly-posting is up to £2500. Authorised council officers can also issue a fixed penalty notice of approximately £80. It also possible to prosecute those companies that are beneficiaries of fly-posting. Companies are no longer able to use the legal defence of ignorance or lack of consent if a company is fly-posting their product or service.